diff --git a/src/host/host.hpp b/src/host/host.hpp
index dbdcec9297..83cc1ceb59 100644
--- a/src/host/host.hpp
+++ b/src/host/host.hpp
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ class HostInterface {
   /**
    * @brief Max number of contexts for the application
    */
-  int max_num_ctxs_{40};
+  int max_num_ctxs_{1};
 
   /**
    * @brief Pool of HostContexWindowInfos
diff --git a/src/reverse_offload/mpi_transport.cpp b/src/reverse_offload/mpi_transport.cpp
index 3b393f0a31..a0e672a88b 100644
--- a/src/reverse_offload/mpi_transport.cpp
+++ b/src/reverse_offload/mpi_transport.cpp
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <functional>
 #include <utility>
 #include <vector>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "../host/host.hpp"
 #include "backend_ro.hpp"
@@ -591,6 +592,10 @@ void MPITransport::progress() {
     const int tag{1000};
     int flag{0};
     MPI_Status status{};
+
+    // Slowing the progress engine down a bit avoid hammering the memory subsystem.
+    // This leads to significant performance benefits
+    usleep (rocshmem_env_config.ro_progress_delay);
     NET_CHECK(MPI_Iprobe(MPI_ANY_SOURCE, tag, ro_net_comm_world, &flag, &status));
   } else {
     DPRINTF("Testing all outstanding requests (%zu)\n", requests.size());
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index e2af50ea64..337f33dc04 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -155,6 +155,12 @@ void rocshmem_env_config_init(void) {
   if (NULL != env_value) {
     rocshmem_env_config.ro_disable_ipc = atoi(env_value);
   }
+
+  env_value = getenv("ROCSHMEM_RO_PROGRESS_DELAY");
+  if (nullptr != env_value) {
+    rocshmem_env_config.ro_progress_delay = atoi(env_value);
+  }
+
 }
 
 }  // namespace rocshmem
diff --git a/src/util.hpp b/src/util.hpp
index 3f47c55d89..fcf3e9e496 100644
--- a/src/util.hpp
+++ b/src/util.hpp
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@ uint64_t wallClk_freq_mhz();
 
 struct rocshmem_env_config_t {
   int ro_disable_ipc = 0;
+  int ro_progress_delay = 3;
 };
 extern struct rocshmem_env_config_t rocshmem_env_config;